Data transfer, including wireless and wireline messaging, is a service that has become increasingly important to subscribers. Existing service providers, such as providers of wireless and wireline voice services, as well as companies catering specifically to wireless data needs, provide data services and plans. Some subscribers may obtain a data package that is part of a total package that may include wireless voice services and other services. Other subscribers, for example those using a personal digital assistant (PDA) that is not equipped to accept voice calls, may require only wireless data services.
Existing networks allow users of devices such as wireless phones, two way pagers, and computers to exchange simple text based messages with other subscribers and, in some cases, with users who may not be a part of the same network or who may only have access to traditionally land-based services such as email. The complexity of the type of messages being sent, as well as the content of the messages, has increased as the sophistication of the networks has increased. For example, newer wireless and wireline networks generally provide support for the exchange of photographs and multimedia presentations between wireless users and between wireless users and wireline users.
Networking and wireless standards have been developed to provide functionality for multimedia capable devices and to allow interaction between the new devices and legacy devices and systems. For example, application servers have been introduced into networks under the 3GPP2 and 3GPP standards, such as internet protocol (IP) multimedia subsystem (IMS) based networks, to support multimedia applications and communications. However, despite these developments, existing standards and technologies have failed to adequately address all of the technology needs brought on by the data transfer requirements of the multimedia capable devices.